


100 shells and life in a village

by then_they_danced



Category: Original Work
Genre: Canon Gay Relationship, Historical, Hospitalization, M/M, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:09:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22533013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/then_they_danced/pseuds/then_they_danced
Summary: Edward just wanted to survive the war, who could blame him honestly.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

Eddie you slow poke hurry up!" running after them fields pass and a cool wind blows through my dark hair, we all fall against an oak tree breathing heavily, there's no where else in the entire world, I go to sit next to them, what were their names again? My heart is racing and my head is getting really heavy. 

Darkness. Darkness covers everything, I'm vaguely aware of someone calling my name, my ears are ringing and a searing pain shoots from my back across my whole body. It's like someone is shoving a knife in my back, sewing it shut only to rip it open. The shouting has increased and phantom limbs are pulling at me and prodding me, something is forcing its self deep into my back and the pain overwhelms me, the shouting continues and crying joins it before I'm overcome by blissful sleep.

Beep,beep,beep

The sound assaults my ears as I come to, a middle aged women in a nurses uniform strides over to me, she gives me a pitying smile after reading the clipboard at the end of the bed. "Good morning, how are you feeling?"She's smiling but I know how bad I probably look.

Absolutely terrible.

You were in a bad way when they brought you in, do you know who you are?"

"Sergeant Edward Rivera."

"lovely! Now, do you remember what happened?"

"Why are we doing this? It's bloody stupid!"

"Calm down, we just need to make sure you haven't suffered any brain damage."

"I don't know what happened, just Boom! And I'm here."

She looks a bit nervous " can you remember any friends or family?"

"My fathers name was John Rivera and my mothers name was Elizabeth Hall, as for friends... I don't think I have any."

The nurse scurries away leaving me alone with my thoughts.

Various nurses visit me during the day all asking different questions, and seemingly discovering holes in my memory, and now I'm lying on my side trying to figure out aspects of my life, and it's terrifying. Humans are wonderfully complex and our minds are genius, they act as a weapon or a sanctuary. However, when your mind betrays you, no where is safe and it's beautifully horrific.

"Get him over here." loud voices fill the room, it can't be later then two in the morning, the lights are switched on, I try to lift myself to see whats going on but agonizing pain shoots through my back, I crane to see. A young man is being lifted onto one of the beds, his left side, up to his chest is bound in sterile bandages, however blood is seeping through, one of the nurses accidentally touches his left side and he cries out. It takes about half an hour until he is settled down and even then a nurse watches over him.

Light streams into the large room as the nurses open the curtains, for such a large room there aren't many patients and a lot of the nurses are idle. "Good morning!" a blonde nurse is standing over my bed practically glowing "is it?" I question, she looks a bit shocked at my depressive tone but smiles anyway "how are you feeling today Mr Rivera?"

"Like someone cut open my back and poured salt in it."

"Well I'm here for today's check up."

"Quick question, why aren't there more patients?"

"Well, this place was a large convent and it was converted into a place for long term patients, a lot of the better doctors are in military hospitals but as you seem to be staying here for a while, you were placed here where we can accommodate you properly."

"So what's my diagnosis? As no one has told me." She goes to get the clipboard.

"It says here that you suffered an extreme laceration near the spinal area. However, no serious nerve damage, various cuts and bruises and slight amnesia."

"Will I get my memories back?"

"We are not sure but we will do everything we can to help you."

"Last question, who is the rookie in the bed over there?"

"That is lieutenant Raphael White."

"What guy? A lieutenant?" The nurse just laughed and walked away, can't they just tell me what I want to know? I am not going to have a peaceful time if I'm kept in the dark. 

The days pass quickly enough and there are no signs of infection in my back. The nurses gave me some paper to try and fill my memory. The rookie, Raphael, woke up after about a week and did very little for a couple of days, but now it seems his rookie nature is shining through. Every time a nurse goes near him, he wishes them a good day and tells them jokes and in return he asks for the newspaper. 

Screaming. I bolted upright and fell to the floor, pain shot up my back but I continued. The nurses all ran to one end of the hall so I limped after them, I understand why I'm here for a while, no soldier is fit for battle like this. Only a couple of the lights were on and the dimmed room, even so the shaking figure on the floor stands out, the nurses have formed a circle around them and they are talking to, and begging the figure. I push past the nurses, Raphael is sat on the floor crying with a knife to his neck, I can remember people doing this, this is my fragmented memory. Soldiers might return from an especially hard battle and just lose it, most soldiers signed up when they 18 expecting glory and fame however all they got was P.T.S.D and an early death. The war has gone on for 5 years and more people have died in one day then they would without a war. I limp over to Raphael and punch him in the jaw, tears stream down his pale face but the knife clatters to the floor, pulling himself along the floor he wraps his arms around my legs pulling me to the ground. After years on the battle, field I'm prepared to break his arms, however there is no hostility in his actions. Pulling him towards me his arms wrap around my waist and his head found my shoulder, the nurses return to the other patients and calm them down, half of them don't know what the hell happened. A tired and mildly annoyed nurse tried to pry Raphael away but, unsurprisingly, he was still extremely troubled by the suicide attempt and since his mental state was crumbling, he decided to use me as an anchor to reality. Raphael continued to cling to me, after a while the poor sleep deprived nurses just gave up and let me handle it, not the best idea really but these poor women have been dealing with war battered soldiers all day. A midnight suicide attempt and they just decided to take a break. 

The next attempt for Raphael's removal occurred in the morning, he was significantly more aware of the situation. Honestly he seemed like an entirely different person, he apologized to the nurses who were there and joked with some of the other patients, he was back to being the rookie instead of the suicidal maniac. The paper on which I had written my memories was full, the nurses think that it's great, however my memory isn't getting better or worse, the holes that fill my mind stay the same. After my daily concern over mentality is finished, I grow increasingly curious at the other patients. There are about 30 beds in the large stone hall, only about 12 of them were filled. All the men had pretty serious injuries, but all of them seemed to be healing, the most serious seemed to be a man of about 30 missing both of his legs, he seems content though. They all seem to be English except for Raphael, who seems to be american and a Frenchman who has been sleeping since I got here. Everyone seems to be friends as they've been talking for hours on end, the nurses seem not to mind it and have even moved some of the beds together. I've been here for about a month and my back has scabbed, every move I make my back aches, I can't complain though, Raphael has it much worse, every day nurses have to make sure his wounds are clean. Apparently, during a battle shells covered some of the barbed wire so when the soldiers charged, the barbed wire covered them, mauling their skin and then the Nazis shot them. Raphael told me that he got weighed down with horrific memories, apparently it was like shooting sitting ducks. The rest of the soldiers couldn't go back to them, it took hours for the victims to be found, even though it hurts him he shows them off as battle scars, even if they haven't healed. Weeks pass in a blink, we all start to heal, well except Jeremy, he can't grow his legs back. I managed to befriend the other patients. There's Jeremy, who lost his legs, he is one of the youngest here, just turned 19. Then there's Philip, he got shot in the shoulder and legs, he comes from London where as a lot of us come from the country. Except from john, he lived in Brighton, he tells us about how cold the sea is. Philippe is French, apparently he was in a gas attack, it messed up his lungs and he was in a coma for a while, he lived in a French chateau with a vineyard, best wine in France apparently. Ee all promised to visit after the war and try some of the 'best wine'. Then there's Raphael, turns out he's Canadian, lived with his family in the mountains. Apparently every winter this massive lake would freeze and everyone went ice skating. There are other patients but they might never recover, a lot of them have shell shock, some are even deaf. We spend all day together, after I was allowed in the group I was bombarded with questions. Thanks to my amnesia, I couldn't answer many of these questions, but they didn't mind, it gave them something to do. Turns out if they didn't know anything they would make it up, "he is quite a tall fella right?" Raphael was obsessed with height, he wasn't tall "maybe he has some supermodel girl back home?"

"Maybe he has a wife?"

"Or children!"

This was getting a bit much, the nurses were having a laugh, maybe my file might say; some of the nurses pushed some beds together so we could rest while talking, my bed however, was not moved so after not walking much the trek across the room seemed almost as bad as going across no-mans land, it didn't help that my legs were rather long. Clinging to the wall I shuffle along, well at least until my so called friends started laughing, pushing off the wall I stride down the middle of the room, I make it to the bed without falling. Getting used to walking didn't take that long but it meant I had an ace up my sleeve, strutting over to the beds I boast my new ability, all of them laugh, the nurses had to calm them down after a while because Philippe was in pain. My file listed my name, age, rank, height, nationality, squad and other random bits of information, " bloody hell!" Raphael was about to go on the height rant again.

"not this again" john groaned

" it's unfair that some fellas get to be giant and I'm not"

Jeremy smirks "how tall are you Raph?"

"5'10" he mutter

"what was that mate? 5'1?"

Raphael turns red, it stands out on his pale skin almost painfully, Jeremy guffaws. It's quite amusing that someone who grew up in the mountains with bears and moose is weakened by a comment about their height, Raphael shuffles over and hits Jeremy playfully with his good arm. 

/AN/ I don't really know what I'm doing and I'm trying to keep it kinda realistic so hang in there, I tried to research it however I wasn't actually World War 2 so it can't be perfectly accurate.

I'm making people tall.//


	2. Testing the body and mind

It's been a month since I arrived and the nurses are deciding what to do with me, there was little nerve damage and my spinal cord is fine, Jeremy said that I would probably have a physical and mental assessment. It hadn't crossed my mind that I would have to go back, the quiet stone halls and neat gardens seemed worlds away from the blood-stained battlefields and horrific trenches. "good morning Mr Rivera" it was Rosemary, she was a cheerful nurse, she usually looked after me and she changed my dressings. We once asked her why she is so nice in the middle of a war and she said 'my fiance is on the front lines, if I'm not cheerful for soldiers like him, who will be?' she is extremely popular with the older patients since a lot of them miss having a caring wife. 

Rosemary cuts straight to the point "Today we will be running some assessments, they will determine if you are fit enough to go back to the army or if you will be sent home and join the home guard, John and Philip will also be assessed with you, so please come this way"

We trail behind her like ducklings, we have to take breaks every couple of meters for me and Philip, John just waits for us feeling a bit superior, we go to a small office one by one. We have to test the mobility in our injured areas. Unfortunately for me this includes quite a few stretches on my back, Rosemary gives me encourage before and after each stretch and honestly I need it, my back is stinging like the devil. "Thank you Mr Rivera, that is all for the physical test, you will get your evaluation at the end of the week, if you have to go back to the front lines we will start giving you regular exercises to get you back into the swing of things, sound good?" Rosemary smiles at me sympathetically knowing how bad conditions are in the front line.

We are all shooed out of the office after a couple of hours and told to sit outside. The hospital is built in an old monastery, a lot of the nurses have been nuns for a long time, in the middle of the monastery there's a courtyard garden, anyone too injured for the outside world but not injured enough to sit inside all day is sent out here, it's neat and quiet. Worlds away from the frontline.

We all settle for sitting in the shade of the courtyard wall, with our backs to the wall everyone relaxes. I take it upon myself to start a conversation,"hey guys what do you want to do after the war"   
" If we win you mean"Philip answers, John heeds no notice to his comment and takes a moment to think " I want to get a nice city house with a pretty wife and a couple of children" Philip sniggers " what a boring dream, I want to start a business and grow rich, then maybe I can help other soldiers like us recover from the war, after what we've seen everyone needs to recover" John laughs,   
"So you want to be a rich Saint to all poor soldiers!" All eyes were on me to have a decent idea of what to do after the war " ugh... I want to find my family and fill in my memory and then I might live in the countryside, ya know in a small village, I can have a garden with vegetables and a garage! I can drive around the countryside and go anywhere I want"  
They both start laughing and it's offending me " at least I had a better dream then both of you!" They look at each other in agreement " you had a good dream but it sounds kind of boring"  
" It's just realistic" they start laughing again so I walk off

In the main hall only a couple of people are awake, one of them in Raphael so I go over to his bed " hey Raphael did anything happen while I was away?" He smiles at me  
" Not much happened, I got my dressings changed, I don't have any infections which is good, phillipe was talking about how small and pretty french women are"  
" What did you say to that?"  
"I told him that Canadian women can carry 5 logs and a baby down a mountain in the middle of winter!"  
"Can they actually?"  
"Some can usually the middle aged ones"  
"The girls in my village sometimes helped with the harvest but they mostly make sure everything is ticking over and no one is dying"  
"Does anyone actually die?"  
"Well Will lost his hand one harvest, in the next village over there's a river and a lot of children fall in, there's a boat that fishes them out but sometimes the boatman is too late"  
" that's awful!"  
"The children can all swim and they've been told not to go too close to the river since they could walk"  
Raphael looks like he has something to say " you were talking about the girls in your village what are they like?"  
"From what I can remember I have an older sister called Victoria but we called her Ria for short, I think she got married? I had a best friend called Grace, I think our parents wanted us to get married but she was in love with my friend Joshua, that's it"  
"Wow that's a lot for someone with amnesia, I have a sister called Annabelle but she went missing a few years before the war, we think she ran away with her foreign lover,"  
"You ever had a girlfriend?" Raphael looks like someone was just horribly mutilated in front of his eyes "no I've never courted anyone, the girls don't like me because I'm not a big strong man"  
" That's tough, but you're great as you are, you survived when no one else could that's more impressive then brawn" I feel proud of my speech and apparently it hit the spot for Raphael, he looks happy, but sad, I just brought up the memory that he was surrounded by corpses of his friends and comrades for hours,helpless.

The melancholy atmosphere went on uninterrupted for a couple of minutes before I coughed and John walked in " hey there Eddie, hey Raph" Raphael cringes at the nickname but doesn't comment "John! Philip where have you guys been!" A guilty look passes between them "we might have had a quick trip to the village to say hi to the locals" I've been told that I'm intelligent but it doesn't take a genius to work out what they were trying to do " so you went to see the locals? Definitely not the nurses on their day off?" They don't answer, to be fair the nurses are the only outsiders we've seen for a while, occasionally more patients will arrive and old ones will leave but that's the most of our outside contact.

/AN/ slightly shorter chapter but it was written during a coach and plane journey so...


	3. An injured soldier in a pub.

"Mr Rivera you are unfit to resume active duty, you will be sent back to England at the end of the month" Rosemary is smiling brightly, Raphael is clapping and everyone is quite cheerful.

Our results were quite positive, I could never go back to service due to physical and mental instability, I was quite happy at that but it probably wasn't something that your supposed to be happy about. John wasn't happy, they said he had to have a trial period back in the military, he just smiled and laughed "looks like you boys will have to struggle on your own while I'm gone" A true icon to us all. Rosemary overhears our conversation and glares at John to shut him up, however it's hard to look intimidating to a group of people who literally don't care anymore. nevertheless John quietened down "hey there Rosemary, can we go down do the village?" The young nurse looks at Philip in shock, scurrying away to the nurses station.

About half an hour later an older nurse, Patricia, comes over to us "okay boys we've decided that tomorrow a group of you can go to the village, however only those who have had their physical test "what if they refuse to give you a test" Jeremy chips in, she looks at Jeremy with calculating eyes before voicing her opinion "Jeremy you can go just don't hurt yourself and make sure the others don't die, it would look bad to lose a patient" Jeremy beams at her and Raphael states at her dejectedly, seeing him sad compelled me to act.

"Listen up men, you are all battle hardened soldiers and as your sergeant it's my job to make sure the mission succeeds- our first line of business, smuggle Raphael and phillipe into the village!" The group sniggers at my tone, we are all terrible soldiers, hence why we're in a long term hospital.   
We spent around twenty minutes on an island made of beds pushed together plotting a way to sneak two patients out of a hospital, John said hide them under coats, Philip suggested doing at night, Jeremy piped up "why don't they pretend to be legs?" These were all good suggestions, barely, but we needed a solid idea "we could go into the courtyard, climb onto the roof and try and wiggle over?" Raphael looked pleased with his suggestion and it was in all realities a good idea however I seriously doubt that Phillipe could climb with his lungs messed up. 

"Good morning Mr Rivera how are you?" It was Patricia this morning,  
"Thanks Pat I'm feeling fine especially since I get to go to the village" Pat grimaced the nurses were dreading letting a group of injured soldiers loose around a village, what a mistake. A small herd of nurses descends on the patients, most of the nurses near our group carried a matching look of pure stress, we weren't that much trouble just a couple of knocked over plant pots.

"Go on you wild animals, don't hurt yourselves!" We grin at the matronly figure in the doorway "don't burst a blood vessel!" We all stare at Phillip before sprinting off. We made it about 20 metres before we started dropping like flies, my legs felt like rusted pistons and my lungs burnt, passing John I give up and go down like a lead balloon. "Oh lord Ed that's embarrassing mate!" Raphael and Philip stare down at me, I swear they feel strong whenever they're taller then me, one day they might trip me up just to be tall. Words of encouragement come from my friends however I prefer lying on the floor to running through the fields so I'm gonna stay down here.

Raphael moves behind philip,slowly to avoid attention, John watches from a couple of metres away obviously trying to keep out of it, a wise plan. Philip is ignorant to Raphael's plans until it is too late. Too late leaves Philip sitting on his ass after being tripped, we look at eachother and a sense of mutual embarrassment washes over us. 

It takes about 5 minutes to get to the village, even though it feels like an eternity to our weak and crippled bodies. The village is a warren of streets and lanes, in the centre they all converge to form a small square with a large town hall looming over the other houses in the square. It invokes a sense of pride, these people have a whole community that can come together if the need arises. This, interesting and humbling as it is is overshadowed by our need to sit in a pub and down pints. After a couple of streets John finds a small comfortable looking pub, he drags us in a wave of enthusiasm.

The French in the pub look startled at the door before turning back to their conversations after acknowledging our entrance, John and Philip make a purposeful line straight to the bar counter. "Guys slow down it's like you haven't had a pint in months!" Raphael receives many harsh stares at this comment but we all get the joke "pal you don't know how much I needed this" I stare at Philip and give him a small shrug to which he responds to with an equally small shrug. After a couple of pints a group of uniformed men stroll in, an air of entitlement following them, they survey the area eyes settling in is in an instant. 

The men position themselves near our group speaking in rapid French, Philip and John are whispering in the corner, probably trying to figure what they're saying. Raphael is looking more and more tense, I place my hand on his shoulder and he rewards me with a small smile that easily conveys his stress. The group start laughing and from there it all goes down hill, Raphael finally snaps and stands up suddenly shocking use all, he speaks in quick precise French I have no way to translate what he said but seeing that the French men switch to English if they can leaves me with the impression that he asked them to speak English. "Good afternoon my name is Emmanuel and this is my squad the..." He lists off many names and numbers so I zone out, that was until Raphael and John start getting aggravated. "So where are you stationed?" Emmanuel gives us an all knowing smile, "we aren't currently in action" John spits out through his teeth, Emmanuel's face falls "so you have abandoned your country, in France you get shot for running" John looks like he's about to pop, Philip looks concerned and Raphael is scowling at the man, his dark hazel eyes show so much disdain towards the soldier. Emmanuel's squad are smirking and laughing at our groups anger, "we fought for our country, have you even been in the front line yet?" Raphael's accent is coming out due to his anger. One of Emmanuel's squamates astro forward "we're being sent out tomorrow and we will return within a week!" Even Philip is getting a bit wound up "we will return as heroes, the Germans will have no chance!" The young man sounds so determined it hurts to listen to.

Everyone gets a pint and after a while we're all calmed down. A figure takes to the stool beside me, it's Emmanuel "why are you in the village today?"   
"We're currently being at treated for injuries in the hospital." Emmanuel looks slightly guilty after hearing of our sounds, he walks off to join his friends.


End file.
